To Galaxy (Outta This World Revision and Remake)
by HighQueenMaeve-LadyOfSmut
Summary: When you've lost everything what do you do? Lt. Fairchild thought he knew, but now Risha Moram is causing him to question everything he took as truth. Meanwhile Spartan B170 has enlisted Maximus to undermine the Covenant occupation of New Mombasa and try to get every human out before the glassing starts. Follow them through the Halo universe in what I hope is an epic drama.
1. Prologue

"You're gonna be fine buddy," Air Force Lieutenant Alex Fairchild shouted above the gunfire as he pushed a syrette of morphine into the wounded marine's thigh. "Just stay with me!" He slapped the marine's face a few times, bringing him back to consciousness before filling the spike hole in his chest with Biofoam. The marine groaned as the foam filled his chest cavity, coughing chunks of the coagulating substance out of his mouth as it filled part of his lung. He winced as the quick patch stung, whimpering in pain. "Nothing I can do about the burn. Either keep your head down and wait for evac or pick up a rifle and start fighting again!" He closed his pack, slinging it over his head and onto his shoulders. Alex picked up his BR55 and waited for a lull in the plasma arcing down the lanes before sprinting across the street. The fire resumed before he reached the alley, and he slid into the tight passage as a Brute grenade whizzed past his head. "Shit that was close," He muttered before turning to the Army private clutching his stomach. "What's wrong, what do you need?" The private shook, and was pale with shock, as he removed his hands, letting his intestines slip free of the massive gash in his gut. Blood flowed like an overturned bucket, and Alex was sure the aorta was severed, along with anything else the needle burst had torn up.

"They got me good Doc," He said hoarsely as he tried to push the guts back inside. They slipped out wherever his hand wasn't, prompting him to groan weakly with pain and worry. Alex opened his pack and pulled out a medical gun, then inserted a large tube of golden liquid. "Oh fuck me," the private groaned.

"Sorry buddy, but orders are orders." Alex took the man's arm and placed the gun against his shoulder, pulling the trigger and filling him with the chemical cocktail. He tossed the vial away down the alley, retrieving a large bandage and a can of biofoam. He stuck the nozzle in the man's stomach, injecting the remainder of the can's contents and tossing it away. "Lean up!" he placed the bandage around the man's stomach, tying it behind his back as he leaned forward, color returning to his flesh. "There's a Beta Blocker in there so you stay conscious and don't go crazy on us. Just get a gun and start shooting till your head gets taken off." He stuffed the gun back in his pack with shaking hands, knowing he had sentenced the man to the worst fate he could think of. A Marine ran past the alley, being stitched with spikes and plasma. Alex grabbed him by his vest, pulling him into the alley and checking his pulse. "He's dead, here." He shoved the MA5 rifle into the drugged soldiers hands, slipping spare magazines and the marine's grenade pouch onto his gear. "Go get some payback from the assholes who got you." The soldier nodded, struggling to his feet and heading out, face first, into incoming fire. Alex huffed and leaned against the wall, catching his breath for a moment.

It had been a good day in Kenya when he had woken up; The sun was shining after a monsoon had finally relented, people were out with families and pets in the parks and squares, roaming the market and window shopping for what they wanted to get with friday's paycheck. He himself had just come back to the garrison from the therapist and felt confident about the progress they had made, and was in high spirits. That was before the Covenant jumped into orbit and started laying waste to the largest cities on Earth. The rallying call had sounded and within thirty minutes he was sailing towards the ground in a Pelican after a CAS Class Carrier had taken out the port wing with a Point Defense Laser. About an hour later, here he was, a Medic, patching up hamburger men and pumping them full of Rumble Drug to keep fighting the good fight.

An electric hiss brought his mind back to the present before a plasma grenade went off just behind the corner of the building he was leaning against. The shockwave deafened him, rocking his body with pressure as the searing heat inflicted instant first and minor second degree burns to his skin. He screamed as the pain connected with his brain, clutching the bleeding orifices and curling into a ball.

His bladder released of its own volition.

Slowly he uncoiled, listening to the ringing around him, watching as soldiers ran towards and away from the defensive point through the smoke and haze of spent plasma, giggling to himself as it stuck him as strange. He looked down at his hands, watching them shake and the sheen of blood reflect the overhead sunlight.

He wasn't laughing anymore.

Muffled cries for a medic and corpsman pushed through the ringing as it began to fade, and his training kicked in, forcing him to his feet and into the street. He ran toward the cries, running hunched over as multihued plasma and spikes flew over his head, diving for cover behind a civilian Warthog as one of the glowing metal projectiles bounced off his titanium shoulder plate. A quick glance showed him he was right where he needed to be as he saw a marine clutching the stump of his leg, just above where the knee would have been.

"Everything's gonna be fine!" He shouted as a military hog rolled up next to him, it's L.A.A.G drumming out a manic tempo on what remained of his eardrums. He pulled the Marine's belt off his trousers and wound it around the stump, cinching it tight and stopping the fountain of blood from leaking out of the ragged end. He pulled off his pack, retrieving a cannister of gel used to clot truncations instantly. He sprayed the gel onto the stump, using a piece of stray metal to tighten the tourniquet as it set over the wound.

He got up and headed toward the blockade, not noticing the marine was unconscious. Halfway there a marine grabbed his pack, pulling him back and to the ground as a tank shell whizzed by, leaving a trail of phosphorous smoke through where his chest had been. The marine slapped his helmet, silently requesting his condition, to which he gave a thumbs up before getting back to his feet and moving further up the line. He was three sub compact cars from the polycrete barrier before he heard the call everyone feared.

"We're being overrun! Fall back! Fall back!"

Alex looked to the fore, seeing several Elites and Brutes jumping the barricade, landing below and laying waste to the front line with Energy Swords and other melee weapons. A Brute chieftain launched himself over the barricade in a Ghost, sailing through the air and dismounting onto the Tank. He ripped the driver from his cockpit, even as he slammed his hammer down on the turret gunner, splattering shards of bone and viscera onto anyone unlucky enough to be nearby. The Brute slammed the driver into the hull several times, pulping his head against the titanium plates before tossing him aside. An Elite bounded over the roofs of civilian vehicles, weaving between the stream of rounds flying from the Hog's machine gun. The alien bisected the gunner with its sword before pulling the driver from his seat. The driver gave a valiant effort, unloading an M7 into the Elite's shields, but was ended before they failed with a thrust into his chest.

"Get outta here Doc!" The private he had tended earlier called as he fired at the elite on the hog. The elite shouted something in an alien tongue before it jumped down, slicing through him just below the diaphragm. The private coughed up blood, and the elite kicked him in the sternum, casting his severed form away from his legs, letting them crumple to the ground. The private pushed himself onto his chest, tapping Alex on the shoulder. "Gimme your knife," he coughed between ragged breaths, removing said weapon from its scabbard on his vest and turning about. Alex watched as the soldier crawled toward the Elite as it shouted orders, directing Brutes, Grunts and Jackals, the soldier trailing gore behind him. What was left of his guts unspooled like cable from his cavity, his heart and lungs still working through the trauma due to the cocktail Alex had given him. He latched onto the Elites leg armor, clawing his way up the elites body. The alien was understandably unnerved by the sight, frantically swinging its sword and plasma rifle at him as he scaled his body. The private hauled his remaining bulk up to eye level with a mighty heave, raising the knife high and plunging it into the Elite's chest through his collar. The private pulled back with the knife, lowering it with force and sinking it repeatedly into whatever soft tissue he could find. He rode the alien down, continuing to stab the now lifeless body with flagging vigor until the Brute with the hammer closed and slammed the weight upon his body.

Alex stared at the mess he had enabled for a split second before rising and bolting for an alleyway while the Brute's back was still to him. He looked back before he entered the alley, discovering he had seemed to get away unnoticed, and proceeded to run deeper into the maze of buildings. He ran and ran, fleeing the lost position for, hopefully, friendlier territory. After several turns and a shot across a street he came upon a square controlled by Covenant, skidding to a halt and ducking behind a dumpster. He clutched his rifle, shivering with adrenaline and fear, gazing up at the massive vessel hovering in the sky several miles away. Motion drew his eyes down as an Elite in black armor materialized out of thin air. It stalked closer to him, moving with a silence he thought impossible, its sword activated in its right hand.

"This is where you die human," It said in clear English, its voice surprisingly pleasant and smooth. Thought this was lost on him in the terror he felt. "A pity you did not take the Prophet's gracious offer to join our Covenant. You would have fit in well." It grabbed his rifle, tossing it aside before lifting him into the air by the collar of his blouse. "Unfortunate you die here. You're an honorable people, throwing yourself against our ramparts at every opportunity. May you find peace in the afterlife." It pulled back its arm, readying its sword to run him through.

However it stopped as static arced across it's armor and caused its shields to shimmed, looking toward the Carrier in the sky as it opened a slipspace hole and shot through. The rift closed, causing a shockwave that tossed them both against the dumpster he had taken shelter behind.

His helmet flew free in the blast.

His head connected with the metal.

His vision faded.

 **XXXXXXX**

Alex awoke an uncertain amount of time later, his vision clouded with the dust that the vicious wind kicked up and the twilight illumination as the sun set. The Elite lay on him, slowly rousing and beginning to move. He panicked, reaching for his knife and finding it missing. He stilled with fright as the alien on him began to move more deliberately and with purpose. Its eyes opened, and in a split second thought he grabbed it's helmet, attempting to snap it's neck but only succeeding in removing the armor. It stared at him with golden eyes, fully awake and obviously upset. It snarled at him, baring its fangs as it activated a wrist dagger.

"You heard the Hierarchs order."

The Elite stopped mid strike, tilting it's head toward the sound of Brute conversation. It turned its gaze to the rear, viewing the Brutes as they milled about the square. Alex peeked to the side, watching as the two Brutes hovered over several dead Elites and fallen kin. The Elites were filled with spikes from Brute weapons, the fallen Brutes killed by plasma.

"That doesn't mean it's wise to kill them. What will happen if one of the sangheili fleets arrives and finds we've killed them all?"

"They won't. The reinforcement coming are solely brothers. The cleansing will continue throughout the galaxy until they are all dead, and _we_ protect the Prophets."

"That doesn't mean that I feel any more certain about our safety. This will come back on us, I can feel it."

Alex winced as his wrist ached, crying out as he realized the Elite was squeezing it harder with each second. The Brutes turned to face the sound, raising their weapons. The Elite released his arm, planting its hand over his mouth as it retrieved the deactivated sword from the ground beside them.

"It's your lucky day," It said smoothly, the pitch and tone of its voice causing Alex to give it a strange look, his mind having a hard time placing such a pleasant voice to this creature. "Stay quiet, and stay here, and you will live to see the sun rise again." It slipped on its helmet and vanished, the weight of it's body leaving his at it stalked away. He rose to a sit, collecting his weapon. The Brutes must have walked past them after the blast and thought they were dead, he realized, because they were on the opposite end of the dumpster than he had landed on. He peeked out, finding them much closer than before. They were nearly on top of him, looking around at their own eye level with weapons raised. Before he could retreat back to hiding, a sword appeared behind them and skewered the one on the right, prompting the other one to turn and fire its weapon at the invisible offender. The Elite appeared violently as its cloak failed, sparks splashing from the surface of its armor before it severed the Brutes arm with an upward twitch of its arms, swiftly decapitating the creature after with a horizontal swipe. The Elite took one step forward, then fell to its knees, catching itself on the ground. Alex could smell its blood, an unmistakable scent that caused his nose to wrinkle, spying a spike embedded in the soft tissue of the Elite's abdomen. It rolled onto it's uninjured side, yanking the still glowing shaft from its abdomen and tossing it away as its hand sizzled. He stood from cover, checking the area with his weapon for more enemies before closing on the Elite. He aimed his weapon at its throat, preparing to dispatch the alien. He stopped, however, finger pressed against the trigger with only a hair's weight separating the alien and the death he believed it so rightly deserved. Try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to do it, instead lowering the weapon with a deep sigh. The elite took off it's helmet, staring at him without aggression.

"Thanks," He said with venom. "For saving my life." He looked around, double checking for active shooters in his A.O. "Now I'm gonna spare yours, so debt paid in full. Don't make me regret this." He stepped over the Elite, shaking his head and walking away from the alleyway, headed deeper into the square. He was full across before he stopped, staring at the gate he knew led toward a more effectively fortified UNSC area. All he had to do was extend his hand and activate the lock and he was through to safer grounds.

Were they really safer though?

The Covenant weren't going to stop, they never did. They would keep attacking until they took the planet. It was just another world with humans on it and that's all that mattered to them. They would kill as many people as they could and then glass the world from orbit, just like Harvest, Arcadia, Reach and so many others he didn't want to think about it. But this was the big one, this was Earth, this was the home of all humanity and there weren't any colonies to fall back to that he knew of. If they lost here, it was the end. And if all that was true, then why was he thinking about hiding, about running away from the fight?

A groan of pain sounded behind him. That voice, so sweet and soft and smooth, filled with pain and anguish. Filled with pain beyond the physical, accompanied by anger and sorrow. He remembered the face that belonged to it, the monster that used it, but he couldn't vilify the voice. Each time it rang out, his mind tried to force him to help, and each time he tried to fight it, until he was turned about, facing the Elite as it tried to hold in it's blood. "What are you doing Alex," he asked himself as he slung his rifle across his back and began to walk towards it. He took off his pack, rummaging through it for what he needed. He set the bag down as he knelt beside the Elite, holding a surgeon's kit in his left hand.

"What are you doing," The Elite said, rolling onto its back. "You don't owe me anything." It made an expression he could only describe as labored pain; eyes shut tight, four mandibles parted slightly and teeth bared. He continued to stare down at it, watching as it stared back. "What do you want human?"

"What's your name?" He searched through the kit, removing a suture needle and medical line. "I'm Alex, Alex Lieutenant of the UNSC Air Force." The Elite switched its gaze between the needle and thread and his face, trying to work out what he was thinking. "Tell me your name and I'll close that wound so you don't bleed to death." The Elite closed its mouth with a clack of teeth, removing its hand from the wound.

"Im Risha," It said. "Risha Moram."

"Is that a girl's name?" Alex set upon the wound, cleaning it with disinfectant and a fresh square of gauze. He had to lift away an under layer of armor that felt like rubber to reach her skin, and was surprised at how smooth and dark the skin was. It was almost as black as space itself, and felt something like satin under his fingers. Risha snarled as the liquid burned, panting as the pain slowly faded.

"Yes, I'm female. I can see how that is hard for you to discern, considering I lack those ridiculous growths your human female's have on their chests." Alex chuckled twice, shaking his head as he threaded the needle and thought how he was going to approach the stitching. "Why are you helping me?" Alex looked her in the eyes, taking a deep breath before returning to the wound. He dug the needle in, carefully feeling where the skin turned into muscle or fat so he didn't go too deep.

"The fact that I said I would spare your life. If I left, you would have still died, and that's hardly fair considering you just took a spike in the gut for me."

"It wasn't for you," She said sharply and with more than a little venom. She was taking the pain of the needle surprisingly well; he had stitched grizzled Gunnery Sergeants from the early Insurrection War that complained about stitches more, even under general anesthesia. "Those traitorous beasts gunned down my brothers and sisters, whether it was under orders or not. The Covenant was founded on the rule that the Sangheili command the military and protect the Prophets. Those worms are destroying something thousands of years old with their new, dumber pets that are easier to control." Alex nodded appropriately, however much he didn't care aside.

"So vengance it is then. Well, I gotta say this is a hell of a time to choose to have a civil war." He sighed through his nose as he tied off the thread, snipping the excess line away and stashed the needle in the kit. "Finally get all the way in to Earth and start tearing yourselves apart from within. I'd say it's Karma for how many worlds you bastards burned but…" He shrugged, taking a square bandage and placing it over the stitches. "There, all patched up. Now my debt is paid." He stood up, offering her a hand. She took it, and together she got to her feet, tentatively testing her range of motion. She couldn't bend far in any direction, her arm wouldn't rise to shoulder height, and the pain caused her to limp with each step.

"Thank you," she said, looking down on him as she stood at her full seven feet of height.

"Yeah, no problem." He patted her on the middle of her back, gathering his pack and placing it where it belonged. "Don't get shot again, cause next time I won't help you." He gave her a forced smile and walked away, making to the door and jabbing the button to open the lock. He waited for it to activate, pressing the key again when it didn't respond after several seconds. He waited again, for a half minute, before looking to the domed camera by the door. "Hey! Super, open up, I'm human!" He looked back at Risha, still standing where he had left her, and gave her a polite wave. After a few moments he banged on the door, pressing the open key more frantically as it continued to refuse to open.

"It won't work," Risha said, causing him to turn around. She was much closer now, only a few feet away, and he jumped in fright. "Anything digital was shut down when the _Solemn Penance_ left." She showed him a watch, a liquid crystal and plastic affair like his. "It was working when I found you."

"So what," He asked, sounding more agitated than he thought he would. "Your watch is broke, my watch is broke. Comms are down. Doesn't matter." He slapped a hand on the door. "This is a hardened circuit. An EMP isn't going to do shit to it, ok?" He turned back to the door, pressing the key a few more times before slamming his fist into the pad. After a few moments he turned around, sighing. "But the Super is probably rebooting. So I'm stuck here with you." He moved away from the accessway door, checking the locks on the buildings around the square. "Not the best of company, but it could be worse. I should be grateful you're not some Gunny that smokes like a fucking chimney,. At least you dont sound like you have a throat full of rocks and too much HUA in your canteen for your own good." After the seventh door he found one that opened, stepping back and recognizing the building type. It was residential, middle class family housing, most likely a bed or three and a full pantry should they be there longer than the night. "That, and you won't try and stage a counter offensive in a lost city with minimal firepower.

"I could likewise be in less savory company I suppose," Risha said as she stepped closer, taking the flashlight he handed her. "You are both not trying to kill me, and rather friendly considering my people's reputation with yours."

"Well I'm stuck in occupied territory," He said, waving her into the building and closing the door behind them. "The enemy of my enemy, as they say." Risha paused on the stairs, glancing back for a moment before continuing.

"I have never heard this saying."

"You're kidding me?" She shook her head, looking down the second floor hallway before taking the next flight of stairs. "You've probably run past it in a terminal without noticing. The full saying is 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend', and it's a pretty popular saying between innies and the UNSC right now."

"This saying makes no sense. The enemy of your enemy would most likely still be your enemy, by the fact that after you cooperate to overcome your common foe, warring peoples will try and take what belongs to the weakest remaining victor." She pushed in a door on the third floor, scanning the room with her plasma rifle before entering full into the apartment.

"You think too much," Alex replied, following her in and checking the hallway for contacts. "It's just a saying." He heard movement behind a door, and he kicked it down, leveling his weapon at the first object in motion. It was a dog, a Doberman, backed into a corner and growling at him. He pulled the door shut as it barked and ran toward him, wincing as he heard the animal impact the steel door. "But that doesn't mean I don't agree with you. It always struck me as something stupid."

"Are you alright," She asked as she rounded the corner, seeing him holding the door shut. He nodded, letting go of the handle and stepping back.

"Yeah, just a dog." He opened the last door, checking the corners and finding it clear. "It's probably scared, thinks I'm a burglar or something." He closed the door he had opened, turning around to find Risha petting the dog and cooing to it. The animal wagged its tail, slowly and still frightened by all that was happening, and occasionally lapped at her hand. "Now that something I never thought I'd see."

"I like dogs," She said, urging the dog to climb into her arms. With a wince she rose, giggling as the dog lapped at her face. Alex shook his head, not believing what he was seeing; that a dog would chose an alien over a human was unheard of. "I like most animals I've encountered on your colonies." She turned down the hall toward the living room, carefully sitting down on the couch and offering the dog a rawhide chew from the floor. "The Covenant allows me a prize, being I'm an assassin, and other than the watch I've only taken animals. My family lives in a farming state, so I have them sent there and visit them when I can." Alex sat opposite her, along a coffee table between sofas, sipping water from his canteen.

"You collect animals…" He chuckled as he cleared his rifle and activated the safety. "That's a pretty human trait for an Elite. Empathy and compassion." She glared at him, the dog whimpering slightly as it smelled her anger. It picked up its chew and carefully, slowly, dismounted the sofa and ran back toward the room they had found it in.

"That name you call us, it is very disrespectful. That is one of the few flaws I am able to find among your people, is that they have no respect for their enemies. You degrade us, vilify us."

"And you are trying to tell me that you don't deserve it?" He grinned with amusement, letting the smile fall into a sour glare. "Your genocidal pursuit of us through space, the slaughtering innocent civilians that are no threat to you, the burning of our worlds with whoever is still on them beneath your lasers, and then have the audacity to claim vilifying you is bad? That is beyond audacity, that's a blatant slap in the face after saying we don't respect you. Not once have we stepped on your toes to earn this war, so why is it we should respect you when you attacked us without provocation?" He glared at her, staring into her eyes even as hers lowered slightly. "I respect you. Those men and women your Covenant is killing out there respect you. The human race respects you because we use conventional weapons to stay alive. If we wanted to get nasty and dirty and disrespectful, we would have captured one of you and created a virus that would sweep through your ranks and decimate your populations. We would bomb you with caustic chemical aerosols that melt your flesh and fuse your armor plates to your muscles and bones." He sighed and licked his lips, pausing to calm himself and looking away. "I… You said you respected our honor and our determination. That we would have gone far in the Covenant had we joined, and I'm pretty sure Lord Hood never heard about any offer of peace before you started glassing colonies, but before I make myself angry again. Had we met on friendlier terms and under different circumstances I'm pretty sure your people, whatever they're called, and my people would have gotten along great and we wouldn't be having this conversation in the middle of a bombed out city on the homeworld of humanity." He stood up and walked to the window, watching the square and street for activity through the thin curtain.

"I am sorry," Risha said quietly, slowly turning her helmet over in her hands.

"No you're not," Alex said bitterly. "You're shamed, embarrassed at having been shamed by a human, and you're scared. Don't confuse that with regret." He turned around, looking at her with a wary eye and expecting physical reprisal.

"That does not mean I don't regret having played a part in all this." She cast her gaze at the table, staring at a raised ring where someone had left a cup. "I'm starting to see that we were manipulated since before this war started, and it feels like my hearts want to seize in my chest." She set her helmet down, wringing her hands with worry. "That we had never seen this coming, the betrayal and replacement. And I am afraid, yes, but not for myself. Sanghelios is vulnerable, my _home_ is vulnerable, not only to the Covenant but to what comes after should we survive." Alex sat down, taking off his helmet and pack and setting them together on the sofa. Alex watched her, noticing how far away her gaze was, as if it stared into forever. He had seen that look in soldiers before, and his training as an officer told him it was a terrible state of mind to let them stew in.

"Well then tell me about it." Risha looked up at him, squinting slightly as she tried to figure out what he was trying to discover. "Look, whether we like it or not we're in this together until I can get back to my people and you can get back to yours. We have to work together, as much as I would rather not. If _I'm_ going to make it out of this alive, I can't have you worrying about something lightyears away because if we get into a firefight and you start to drift, it could get us both killed." She nodded once, leaning back into her seat. "So tell me what's on your mind, and I promise I'll care. I've learned a lot from my therapist visits." He laughed quietly at his own joke, not expecting her to get the meaning. She chuckled once appropriately, shaking her head and taking a deep breath.

"The Sangheili, my people, were once proud and independent people. We built cities, ships to travel the stars, studied science and math and philosophy, cultivated the land and raised herds of livestock. Above all, however, we were all warriors. We excelled at war, and always fought with honor and respect for one another. Then the San'shyuum, the Prophets and leaders of the Covenant, came and we fought. We were winning until they used a ship from the gods, and eventually we called a truce and founded the Covenant. They would observe and study the relics left by the gods, what started the war to begin with for we hold them sacred and do not touch them beyond reverence and worship, and we would protect them as we searched for a way to join the gods in ascendance."

"So you weren't always friends then, the Covenant did not always exist and you don't share a home world?" She shook her head, taking a Rubik's cube from the table and toying with it. "Have you ever seen one of those before?"

"It's a puzzle cube. I can see you are supposed to make each side match to a single color. We have a type of these on Sanghelios, a sphere called an Arum." She tested how it worked and quickly set about spinning and turning the levels and columns. "Though ours have interlocking spheres inside the shell that you have to puzzle out to reveal the prize inside." In less than ten seconds she finished the cube, setting it back on the table and clasping her hands together. "In my culture those are for children, something to teach them patience and discipline the mind to think abstractly. The prize can be a candy, or a gem or whatever you decide to put inside. Some adults still enjoy them though, a trifle to pass time and ensure their minds are sharp. They can be very complex." Alex guffawed at the speed of which she finished the cube, picking it up and looking it over with a smile on his face.

"I have never finished one of these. Well, no, that's a lie. I finished one in highschool, but I've never tried it again." He shook his head as he turned it over, marveling at her efficiency.

"Most humans lack the patience for puzzles, I've found. That's not a bad thing, mind you. Just something I picked up." She adjusted her mandibles, letting her teeth clack quietly as she thought. "The Covenant was good for both of our peoples. The Shan'shyuum were free to focus more on the technical and philosophical that they excelled in, and we were free to benefit from their discoveries and travel to reaches of space previously unknown to us. As we traveled we picked up other members, either by diplomacy or force." She stopped as he placed the cube back on the table, looking him over, examining his physical attributes and the attentiveness he seemed to be listening with. "Then we met you. I was still living in 'Mdama when the campaign began against humans, but the Prophets spread the word that you were an affront to the gods and must be cleansed from the galaxy before we could ascend. I always thought this strange, because no matter the atrocities against scripture and relic the other species had committed, we still at least pressed them into the fold. However your people were to be exterminated." She unlatched her boots and stood, stepping out of them.

"Why didn't you speak up then?" She barked a laugh, tossing her gauntlets and pauldrons onto the sofa. "What?"

"Speak out against the Prophets? That's a death sentence, or worse, the Arbiter's mantle. I joined to regain some of the honor lost by my forefather, Ripa, after he himself was Arbiter during the occupation of Harvest. To assume the mantle of Arbiter is to admit you have lost all honor, and this carries to your family as well." She returned to her seat, rubbing her forearms through the undersuit of her armor. "I feel we have gotten off topic with this, so I'll continue the course we began." She placed her hands on her knees, taking a deep breath as she thought of how to put her worry to words. "If my people survive this, we will still have our wings clipped both metaphorically and literally. We have lost a great amount of what we once knew due to our complacency to be just warriors. We no longer know how to build or repair our ships, and precious few among us remember how to work the soil and tend herds. We have no scientists, no engineers, no labor force. However we have an excess of weapons, and to accompany this we have too much idle time and minds for this to be good. Some will take to banditry and take what they need from those that have it by force. There will also be those who abandon the religion of the Covenant for the old religion, and those who hold to it. This will cause a rift to form among us, and in the aftermath of the cleansing, this could cause us dangerous amounts of separations and insular conflict. What I fear, is that we will destroy ourselves should we endure, and that my people will face the same fate the Jiralhanae do time and again." Alex nodded, understanding her fear now that he thought about the state of Earth and the Colonies.

"And if we survive this war, humans I mean, there is a lot of military hardware out there for any remnants of the Insurrection to get their hands on. They're not gonna let old sqwabbles die, and it's only gonna get worse considering how long it will take to rebuild Earth, let alone establish contact with anyone that the Covenant missed." He sighed, thinking of all the fighting left to do after this war was over. Motion caught his peripheral vision, and he looked to see Risha's expression tightened in pain as she cupped her wound. "I'm sorry but I don't know if any of the pain killers I have would work with your biology, and there's the chance they might even be dangerous." She waved a hand as if to say not to worry. "The last room, down the hall. There's a bed in there, and a bathroom with a shower I'm sure, if you want it. You need the rest more than I do with that hole in your side. So I'll take the first watch, make sure nothing comes to kill us, if you're tired. You lost a good bit of blood so it would be a good idea."

"I think you're right." She stood, audibly complaining as the wound pained her with exertion. "I will go rest, though I doubt I will sleep." He nodded, idly acknowledging her words as she limped down the hall, using the wall as support. He waited until he heard the door close before loading his rifle and dragging a chair toward the window. He moved the curtain just enough to see past, watching ships descend and deposit their troops on the ground.

"That's quite a sight," he mused, taking a drink from his canteen and watching a Phantom float overhead.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Why am I the only Warchief to not be aware of the conspiracy against the Sangheili?" Maximus, an exceptionally tall and massive Jiralhanae, slammed his fist against the metal table before him in anger. The impact bent the structure, causing the hologram projector to list and slid toward the mild valley. The projection of Tartarus, another Warchief under the direct command of the High Prophet, sighed and rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as he glared back at Maximus.

"There was not time to tell everyone before the Prophet of Regret fumbled the plan and escalated the timeframe." Maximus growled low in his throat in aggravation, but kept his peace as he rose to full height. "This has been the plan for several cycles, and the High Prophet planned for this to be a quiet and peaceful happening. However, in his haste, Regret came to the human home system ill equipped and forced Truth to add speed to this." Tartarus looked away, nodding a few times as someone relayed a message. "Very well," he said as he returned his vision to the projector. "High Charity is to join Solemn Penance immediately. You have your orders and re-enforcements are in orbit awaiting your call. Hold that city, direct the containment of all neighboring cities and await our return. The High Prophet will not look kindly on failure, and considering how devoted you were to the Sangheili you should take this as a chance to improve your standing with him." The projection destabilized as it was severed from the other end, and Maximus used his hammer to destroy the particle tank.

"Find me another one," He ordered to the two Unggoy standing opposite the desk. "I am going to see how the occupation is progressing. Have it back in this room before I return or you both will be used as a snack for my lieutenants." The pair's eyes widened, sharing a look of fright before they turned and scampered toward the door yipping and panting. He sat in the large armchair he had found in the room, sighing and massaging the bridge of his nose as a headache began to creep up on him. "So much for the constancy of order." He looked up as a knock sounded near the door, lowering his hand as he saw a pack leader enter the room. "What is it?"

"We found something," He said, seeming rather put off and shaken. Maximus moved forward in his seat, leaning on his knees, silently imploring for more details. "There have been murders, Warchief. My brother's pack, they…" The Brute shook his head, shuddering. "You have to see it." Maximus sighed heavily as he rose from his seat, having to stoop slightly to traverse the building.

"Show me," He said, following the Major rank Jiralhanae out of the room and through the hallways. They exited the building and continued on, passing through the hastily set up camp and entering the city center. Maximus let his gaze roam, observing the city for the first time from the ground. He had only just gotten the camp together and ordered, having arrived maybe an hour after Solemn Penance had slipped away. He was always impressed with the human's desire to create large structures wherever they colonized. To make monuments to their ambition, he postulated. Whatever the reason was, the sight never failed to cause him a sense of wonder. He had seen Reach and traveled through their New Alexandria, saw the Tiara on Harvest, observed Cote D'Azur from high altitude before the humans destroyed it in a scorched earth tactic of denial. He let his eyes wander as they traveled, working their way through the dark of the city toward the obviously industrial sector of the city. They stopped before a large closed gate, a Huragok floating nearby dismantling and reassembling the engine of one of their vehicles. The brute leading them whistled loudly, drawing its attention and pointing to the door. It dropped what it was doing, literally, and moved toward the control panel. With a flurry of tentacles the door hissed and slid open, revealing the city beyond the seawall. The venture from here was short, and suddenly Maximus was presented with seven Jiralhanae hanging from cables by their necks. Two phantoms hovered overhead, illuminating the area.

"What hell is this," He said breathlessly. The Brutes were mangled almost beyond recognition; Their chests pried open and their entrails spread about between them like garland for a holiday celebration, limbs hanging my nothing more than strips of flesh or missing entirely. Their faces were frozen in expressions of agony and terror, obvious that these wounds were inflicted upon them whilst they still drew breath. "How do you know this is your brother's pack?"

"This." The Brute lifted a taxidermied animal's foot, having rested upon a severed head. "This was his, and this is his head." The Brute tucked the trinket into a pouch, shaking his head and offering a prayer to the gods. Maximus hadn't looked however, instead reading what was written on the walls with Jiralhanae blood in the Covenant simple script.

"Leave, or this will be you all," He entoned. "I will decorate this city with your corpses to the last, and dance before a fire on the final day as I devour the hearts I collect from your chests. I offer no quarter. I offer no hope. Fly, and live. Until I find you among the stars." He felt the fur on the back of his neck rise, unable to shake the feeling that he was being watched. He turned about, scanning anywhere a human could hide for any trace, but he found none. Instead his subordinates watched him, ready to engage at a moment's notice yet still shaking with fear and anger. He returned to the hanging pack, pointing to their corpses. "Cut them down! Send them to the morgue on one of the ships and fill this area with patrols. I want this human found and I want it dead!" The assembled troops dispersed, carrying the message, save for a team of two that began searched for a way to access the suspended bodies. The Brute that had led him there stayed.

"You don't think this was one of our own?" Maximus shook his head, staring into the structure above the scrawl.

"This is the work of a Demon, and a talented one at that." He lowered his gaze, patting the Major on the shoulder. "Gather your fallen for a pyre, then return to your posts." The Major nodded, setting off to join the team in finding a way to cut down the dead. The light faded as the Phantoms moved away, and motion caught his peripheral vision, drawing his eye to a roof on the opposite side of the road. Atop the factory stood a lone human, clad in armor of a kind he feared. It held it's helmet in the crook of it's arm, a rifle in the other hand, long blond hair blowing about in the wind, illuminated by the fires on the city behind it. He made for his own rifle, but stopped as he saw it's eyes. The ice blue, semi luminescent disks struck him still with fear, and the way it stared so intently at him made him want to run and hide. He had seen what these Demons could do first hand, and he wanted nothing to do with it again. He blinked and in the span of a fraction of a second, the Demon was gone, causing him to wonder if it was just an anxiety fueled hallucination. That was until he felt cold metal pressed against his throat and the edge of a knife bite into his thick hide.

"Scream and you're dead," A feminine voice said, pulling against his throat with the blade. "Arms out to the sides King Kong, and walk back." He did as commanded, in no position to bargain and knowing already the smallest of Demons were far stronger than he was. He walked backward, watching the buildings fade away as the pace increased. He saw the edges of an alleyway come into view before he was spun around. "Go." He started walking forward, following the not so gentle guidance of the blade. He was forced into a building, then to his knees. His helmet was wrenched from his head, and his hands were pressed into the thick braided mane. The demon came into view, dark blue armor decorated with a Jiralhanae skull over the left shoulder and a domed silver visor touching the back of it's helmet. It was a female by build and voice, and it's name read B170 on her right breastplate.

"What do you want?" He asked, B107 removed her helmet as she slid a wide metal sword between her shoulders. Her blond hair cascaded over her pauldron and back, giving her a sense of dangerous beauty he thought. She collected a shotgun from the wall, kicking a chair so it slid to a rest before him. She sat down, laying the weapon across her lap as she stared at him. He stared back, but was sure she could see his fear. After five minutes she smirked, reaching out and took a pouch from his belt.

"I've been following you for some time," She said, opening the pouch and dumping its contents on the floor. There was a polycrete reproduction of a microburst of Ptolemy, as well as one of Socrates and Aristotle. She reached inside and removed a folded stack of paper, opening them to reveal various legendary paintings from renaissance artists. "Reach to be exact. You have an eye for good art, and a taste for classic literature and human philosophy." She dropped a book at his knees, worn and weathered but the pages seemed no worse for wear. It was a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, Hindu scripture. "I nipped that from your _office_ right after you left to come see my little project. What did you think, something for the history books maybe? It would be a shame if a Prophet got wind of your obsession with human culture, wouldn't it?" She gestured to the items on the floor, tossing the pouch back onto them to let him know he could collect his belongings.

"What do you want from me?" He asked, getting slapped across the face.

"Something you can't give, and stop asking so many damn questions." She stood and paced around, her face expressionless. "ONI thinks you would be a good source of information on the inside. Someone to tell us what's going down and when. I would rather blow your face out of the back of your skull. But what I want and what the UNSC needs are lightyears apart. So I have an offer for you." She used the shotgun to lift his chin, forcing him to look at her. "You tell us everything, and continue to feed us information from inside the command structure, and we get you out and back to whatever it is you care most for before we kill every last one of you alien bastards." She removed the weapon from below his chin, using the muzzle to trace a long scar that ran from his temple to his chin. "I see someone went and made you pretty. Wouldn't have happened to be my uncle G, would it?" She pulled away the weapon, magnetically attaching it to her back. Maximus forced his shivering to not show, but couldn't still his hands as he gathered his belongings. "So, what's it gonna be? Cake or Death?"

"I have no love for the Covenant," He said, sitting against his calves. "They pressed my people into their service, conscripted me when I became Warchief by ascension. I only stayed because of the Sangheili. They treated me with respect when I gave it to them, a few even risked their lives for the loyalty I showed them. Now there is an order to kill them on sight and I want no part of this. I had planned to turn against Tartarus, should he ever return, and either die or use my new position to take out the Prophets." He shook his head, sighing. "I have no family, and my mind is wasted on Diosac among its barbaric society. So, Demon, I will have cake."

"You were pretty quick about taking that carrot." B170 looked down at Maximus, her hands placed on her hips. "How can I be sure you won't run back to your masters and tell them to send more forces before we can strike back at you?"

"You can't. You have to trust me."

"That's not something a Spartan, let alone an ONI Spartan, does easily." She gestured for him to get up. He did, stretching slightly as he rose to his full ten feet of height. "Jesus you're tall."

"I get that a lot. Even on Diosac I am viewed as almost a giant." He shrugged his shoulders, adjusting the weight of his armor slightly so it sat more to his waist than his shoulders. "What is your plan Demon?" B170 stared at his face, taking in all the features and committing them to memory.

"Sedition. Search and destroy. Guerilla warfare." She moved away, opening a large locker and revealing a cache of weapons both human and covenant. "I need you to set up locations for Marines I conscript into this to strike and eliminate. I need to build morale among the forces left so more will flock to the cause and fight back."

"This is a risky game. There will be a lot of death, on both sides if you want this to work. I cannot just send Brutes to their deaths without rousing suspicion in my competency. There must be moments where your efforts go wrong and my forces have a victory."

"I am aware of the requirements for such an endeavor. I've been playing this game my whole life. Alpha Company trained us. They were not kind." She retrieved a sniper rifle and spare magazines, stashing them in her armor compartments for quick access. "The first part of this plan is to clear a sector of the city for a base of operations so my forces have an area to fall back to. I need to know where your forces are so I can decide which location is most defensible and route all UNSC ground forces to that location."

"The north section of the city is the least occupied, if the previous overseer's records are to be believed."

"Then that's where I'll go." B170 slid a magazine into the rifle's receiver, slinging the weapon and retrieving an MA5B with an upsized receiver. It was designed to use .458 caliber munitions, an archaic round from the twenty first century that hit with far more power than standard UNSC 7.62 rounds. "If you have anyone in there that you want out, I suggest you remove them and bring them toward the city center, or the southern industrial district." She slid a magazine into the receiver, stashing spare ammo where she could, even going so far as shouldering a pack that clattered with magazines and clips.

"Very well. There are a few that would serve to aid your efforts. They're not commanders I would send to get a job done, simply bodies to fill positions. If I give them command of units, then your soldiers shouldn't have too much trouble dealing with them."

"You catch on quick. I'm starting to like you." She screwed a silencer into the muzzle, shouldering the weapon and turning to face him. "Well King Kong, hop to it then. Dismissed."

"What is your name? I would like to know in case i am captured and have to convince one of you humans I'm a collaborator."

"Eirwen, Spartan B-One-Seventy." She took her helmet in hand, staring at him without expression. "I already know who you are, Maximus. Son of Caecilius. Father of Tars and Magnus."

"You have done your research."

"You have a lot of time to snoop when you're stowed away on Unyielding Hierophant." She pointed to the door with her helmet before putting it on, hiding her face again and shimmering as Reactive Nanotube Camouflage rendered her nearly invisible. "Go round up your flock before I start killing." Maximus nodded, donning his helmet and making his way out of the door. He looked around as if he was searching, Eirwen speculated so any nosy Brute underlings would believe the act. She waited until he was far enough away that any attention would be drawn away from the building before exiting.

She made her way up the seawall, entering the city center and taking the Ghost she had stashed. Covenant vehicles had their perks. They were nearly silent until you reached conventional engagement ranges, even quieter in a crowded metropolis like New Mombassa. She navigated the streets and alleyways, making the northern section of residential buildings within thirty minutes. She parked the craft in an abandoned garage, hiding it before she began following UNSC distress beacons. She needed an army, even to take a small section of the city and keep it, so she would spend the next hour or two rounding up strays while Maximus did his part.


	2. Chapter 1

Risha woke herself as she felt herself begin to dream, elevating her forebrain to consciousness and staring at the ceiling of the room. She ached, body and mind and soul, but she resigned herself to suffer in peace because she knew the causes of her pain were beyond her control. After a few minutes she swung her legs over the edge of the mattress and stood, slowly making her way around the room and checking what was inside, searching for clothing as she planned to bathe. The cool air night left the room chill, and her bare skin reacted by tightening slightly. It was a far cry from the sweltering heat she would be enduring in Mdama, however she found it comfortable. She rummaged through drawers and closets, finding brightly colored and flowing clothing she did not expect. It reminded her of the dress of Sanghelios, and a pang of homesickness ran through her.

' _We truly are not so different, are we?_ ' She looked for what human used as undergarments, finding the baggy trunks and overly small and obviously feminine garments to be strange, nothing like the sling cloths her people wore. She tipped her head to the sides in a shrug, resigning to go bare beneath the clothes she had chosen. She would have simply returned to her armor, however the undersuit was damaged and no longer safe to wear. Her Exoskeleton of plating would suffice, considering it covered nearly all of her except her navel area.

The bathroom was odd to her, unsure what the strange bowl connected to the floor was for, and the shower was encased in glass panes. She turned the knob in the shower, being blasted with steaming hot water she did not expect. She hissed like an angry snake, stumbling out of the shower as he skin burned from the sudden heat. She must have made more noise than she realized because Alex stood in the doorway, rifle at his shoulder but pointed to the side.

"Christ, I thought you were being attacked with all the racket you caused." He deflated slightly, visibly disarming his mind into a more peaceful state. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"I… Didn't expect the water to be hot." She slowly grabbed a towel from the rack on the wall, holding it so it covered from her pelvis down for modesty. Alex took the subconscious hint and diverted his eyes to stare at the tiles beside her foot.

"Yeah, we take hot showers." He set his rifle on the sink, stepping into the bathroom and turning the knob in the shower until the steam stopped. "There, it's warm now, but not hot. Just turn the knob left for cooler water, right for hotter." He stared her in the eye and nodded once, awkwardly making his way out of the room. She waited until he was gone to return the towel to the rack, picking up a bar of soap and sniffing it. It had a floral scent, and though it wasn't the neutral smell she was used to, it wasn't unpleasant. She turned to face the sink and mirror, looking herself over and gingerly touching around the stitched wound on her side. It ached more than the wound itself, and the weakness and chill in the rest of her body caused her to worry.

She pushed the thoughts out of her mind, instead entering the shower and finding the temperature far more accommodating. The warmth filler her quickly and pushed the chill from her body, alleviating some of the aches and pains and allowing her to clear her mind of several worries. She found the soap didn't have the effervescent burn Sangheili soap had, however the scent relaxed her nerves well. All in all she would have considered it a very fine hygiene experience, and felt magnitudes better than she had before. As she managed the clothing she had appropriated she caught herself humming a tune from her childhood, something her mother had sung to her when she was very small. The clothing hung loose in places where it should have been tight, and was far too short for her, barely meeting her hips. She removed the robe from her shoulders and settled for folding it once and fastening it around her waist.

She made her way from the bedroom to the living room, finding the clock on the wall had progressed two digits, two hours if her knowledge of human time measurement was accurate. The sound of soft plodding on carpet drew Alex's attention and he looked her over, smirking and nodding once.

"You approve I take it?"

"Positively African, and very traditional colors as well." The cloth was a design of stripes and triangles colored yellow, orange, red and brown. She had turned what was originally a shirt into a skirt rather tastefully in her opinion, though she felt slightly exposed without her chest and stomach covered as was custom for females on Sanghelios. "Are you hungry? I raided the pantry and fridge, found some pretty decent meat too." He nudged a skillet sitting on the table next to him before returning his view to the window. "It Mutton done in a Teriyaki style with onions and sweet peppers. I already had my fill if you want any."

"You're very generous," She said, taking a seat behind him and lifting the meal towards her face to smell. It didn't smell offensive, however it was strange. A mixture of salt, sweetness and aromatic spice met her sinuses and caused her stomach to groan quietly, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since inserting into the city when the sun was still high in the sky. She took the large spoon in hand and took a careful taste, finding it not unpleasant. That struck her as something quite strange, that humans weren't the repugnant creatures her brothers and sisters claimed they were. The word _nishum_ was thrown around sangheili speaking members of the covenant, meaning parasitic worm. However they continued to prove to her that they were anything but. They enjoyed things, just as the Sangheili did, and it seemed most everything human's enjoyed, she enjoyed as well. "May I aks you a question?"

"You should eat before you do, but I won't stop you." She took a full bite of the meal, chewing it slowly as she tasted all there was to sample in the mouthful. She decided she didn't enjoy the stiff orange parts, and that the pale yellow cone vegetable was her favorite of the vegetables. By far her favorite part was the meat and the flavoring it had. It tasted very similar to colo, a Sangheili livestock animal, and the way the spices warmed her tongue was pleasant in her opinion. The flavors were far more delicate than the chosen flavorings Sangheili used, preferring strong and pungent flavors in dishes compared to the lighter and complementing ones humans used.

"You could have killed me," She said after finishing the rest of the meal, wiping her mandibles with a clean cloth from the table. "You wanted to kill me. I saw it in your eyes when you placed your weapon in my face. I don't blame you for wanting me and my kind dead, in fact I understand entirely. What I don't understand is why you didn't." Alex sighed, deflating. She could smell the change in his pheromones, the air wafting from him now filled with confusion and fear of a different sort than before. "Don't lie to me Alex. I have been honest with you since my first words."

"Yeah and I appreciate it." He moved his foot, letting the curtain cover the window. "I try to keep you dehumanized, but the more I think and the more you're around the harder it gets."

"How do you mean?"

"Well the way you talk and sound for starters. You sound like this girl I once knew. Odette. We went through technical school together after basic training, at least until she finished her training and went to deploy. She was from Tours but lived in London, and had almost exactly the same tone of voice and the exact same accent you have."

"You were attracted to this woman then?" He nodded slowly, rhythmically continuing the motion as he watched Brutes move beyond the window.

"Yeah, for what good it did me." He paused, becoming very still. He seemed to deflate further; shoulders falling, gaze lowering to his boots, breathing slowing. It was the image of deep sorrow she had seen when news came that a warrior a female had been wed to had died. "We kept in contact after, planned on hooking up if we survived the war. But Fumirole was hell, and I had to watch her die in my arms after she was brought back to the fleet over the planet." A phantom passed its spotlight over the building, and she could have sworn she saw tears on his cheek before he casually wiped his face. "Then Earth was attacked and there you are. One minute you're trying to kill me, the next I'm patching you up because you sound like she did and I couldn't bring myself to walk away and let you die." He fell silent, slowly returning to the way he had found him when she entered the room. The silence filled minutes, and she felt she should say something. Finally she bucked up the courage and began to ask him to continue but he cut her off. "And then there's your habits, like crossing your legs, sitting propper and graceful like she did. When you hid yourself in the bathroom for modesty, and how there's not a hint of aggression in your voice unlike every other hinge-head I've seen. I hope I'm painting the picture right. You have so many human characteristics and ticks and habits that when I look at you I see her, dark skin and all."

"I see." She looked away from him, spying a book on the table. She picked it up, taking in the art on the cover. It was a picture of a human woman riding a winged beast covered in scales and projecting flames from its was wielding a sword, wearing armor Risha thought looked rather impractical. The title was _Dragonriders of Andromeda_ , and she read the synopsis on the back thinking the summary to be rather boring in her mind. She put it back where she found it, lacing her fingers together as she sat in silence, feeling the chill and ache creep back into her body from her abdomen.

"How's the wound?" His voice caught her off guard, and she nearly jumped in fright. "I heard you grunt when you put the book down. Is it hurting more than it did before?"

"Yes, but I guess that would be usual for healing wounds." She placed a hand on her side, testing it with slight pressure and finding it far harder than it was normally. "Sangheili warriors don't use doctors. To loose blood is to lose honor, and to cause a warrior to lose more blood than they would from a wound is to take their honor from them."

"Yeah well a dead warrior isn't as useful as a live one." He removed his boots from the chair they were propped on, rising to his feet. "Your people remind me a lot of the Samurai in feudal Japan. All honor and battle and glory. Patriarchal if I'm not wrong. Am I?" She shook her head, and stood at his urging. He pressed his hand into her side as she had before, making a high pitched noise through pursed lips. It was called a whistle, if she wasn't mistaken. "This isn't good." He pressed a bit more, placing his free hand on her other side and testing the difference. "You're hemmoraghing internally, bleeding into your body cavity. If it doesn't stop on it's own, you could die." He looked up at her from his crouched position, giving her a _smile_ as they called it. However it didn't seem happy as they were supposed to be. "How do you feel about Doctors?" He continued to test her flesh with his palms, pressing areas of her abdomen to see how much was filled with blood.

"I'm not opposed to them, as most females in my society don't share the idiocy of males." She looked straight ahead, grunting quietly when he touched a particularly tender spot. "I have never been healed by one other than with medicine however. Ouch!" She hissed without meaning to, closing her eyes in pain as he pressed into the wound. She heard him mutter an apology as the pain faded dulled. She waited for the pain to return, however it never came and she could still feel his hands. She looked down, watching as he stared at his hands, noticing his thumbs gently caressing her stomach. She cleared her throat, and he pulled them away, clasping his hands together as he stood, shifting in the way that said he was in uncomfortable territory. "Why did you ask that question?"

"Because I may be your only hope of living if this doesn't fix itself." He looked her in the eye, giving another unhappy half smile. "I could, if I had to, clamp you down on a table in a hospital, open you up, find what's bleeding and stop it." He shook his head, sitting on the sofa next to where she stood. "But it would be traumatic. Psychological damage. I can't anesthetize you because I don't know if our anesthesia would kill you or not."

"What is _anesthesia_? I'm not familiar with this word."

"Its uh… It's a chemical compound that puts you into a deep deep sleep. Numbs your nerves so you don't feel anything at all. We have local anesthesia, which just numbs a certain area of the body and leaves you awake, and general anesthesia that knocks you out. Local is safer than the knockout stuff; no risk of leaving you in a coma, and i could probably risk using it on you as long as i had an adrenaline shot nearby incase you go into anaphylaxis. Allergic shock where your respiration and cardiovascular systems shut down. But if you're awake for an open body surgery it can still leave the mental scars."

"We don't have that on Sanghelios, or even in the Covenant. Our doctors would simply have you bite on a padded ball too large to begin to swallow and go to work." He barked a laugh, but she didn't detect any humor in it.

"That's uh… Pretty medieval by human standards." He pinched her long abdominal muscles lightly, his eyes saying he was working something out in his mind. "Do you think you would be alright if I opened you up? If it came to that I mean." She looked him over with a suspicious eye, unsure how to take the question.

"Why would you offer?" She moved away from him slightly, trying to get more of a metaphorical scope of him. "Hours ago we were enemies. We are still enemies, just temporarily allied." He sighed, looking at the floor and nodding. "Alex, are you alright? In here, alright?" She touched the side of her head, indicating his mind. "You were petting me moments ago…"

"I'm sorry, I just…" He shook his head, running both hands over his face as he took a deep breath. "I was coming to terms with her death, or I think I was. To top that, my parents died in a car accident a month ago. I like to think I'm strong, but it's becoming apparent that I probably have a few cracks in my mind. Maybe it's the stress of the invasion, piled on top of my parents and Reach and Odette…" He trailed off, and she watched as he seemed to force his eyes to divert away from her. "Look I'm just…" He sighed, then suddenly growled and knocked the puzzle cube from the table before standing and stalking toward the hallway. He pressed his hands against the walls, looking like he was trying to widen it. Risha stood, moving closer to him and holding out a hand towards his back for comfort but stopped herself. "You have no idea what you've done to me, to all of us. Harvest was scary, then all the colonies falling like flies, then Reach. The big one there. That really put us on edge. Everyone here on Earth is terrified, even before the invasion, even with the Home fleet in orbit and all the platforms with Super MACs, all the soldiers on the ground... There's only so far you can push a human before they start to lose it, and I feel like I'm getting very close to my limit."

Risha pressed her palm into his back, between his shoulders, gently rubbing circles around the tensed muscles. She could feel him relax, though whether with relief or with despair she couldn't tell. She felt for him, understanding how he felt full well because she felt nearly the same way. Sanghelios was in danger of the same thing happening here, and she dreaded hearing that it was glassed when she next made contact with another of her kind. She carefully pulled him into an embrace, cautious of how he would react, but needing the companionship as much as she felt he needed it. He relaxed further and she could feel the tension bleed from his shoulders, no longer pressing against the walls. He even leaned back into her.

"I'm tired of fighting." He lowered his arms as he spoke, letting them dangle loosely at his sides and brush against her arms. "I'm tired to all the guts and gore, all the dead men and women hanging on for dear life when that I have to tell will be alright when I know they're not. I'm tired of patching people up so they can go back out and come right back with plasma burns or spikes or needle holes. I'm just tired of war and everything about it. I've been in the UNSC for ten years. I spent most of that as a combat surgeon and I've seen just about every part of the human anatomy where it shouldn't be and put it back together." He pulled away carefully, separating himself from her and pulling a rectangular box out of his blouse pocket. He removed a white and yellow tube from the box and pulled a red strip from the end, creating an ember that leaked an acrid fume. He inhaled, then exhaled cloud of smoke, something detestable she was aware humans did. It was called Tobacco if she remembered correctly. "You said we were still enemies. Do we have to be?" He looked at her, blowing smoke out of his nose as he held the tube, a Cigarette she remembered, in his fingers. "I'm not saying we have to be friends, but we don't have to be enemies, do we?"

"I suppose we don't." She diverted her gaze to the hallway, finding the dog cautiously coming toward them. Alex slid his back down the wall, sitting and calling the animal toward him. IT approached, and he gently lavished affection on the beast, causing it to wag it's tail as he stroked it's fur. She thought about what he had told her, taking in a different side of the war, feeling for humans in different ways than she had before. She had never hated them to begin with, but…

She swooned, stumbling to the side as lightheadedness overtook her and catching herself on the wall. The dog whimpered and backed away from Alex, and he rushed to catch her, helping her to her feet, then to sit on the floor. "You're really cold. What's your answer to my question? Are you going to let me try and fix you?" Her head was swimming, and his voice sounded muffled and distant. She could feel her consciousness fading, and the only thing keeping her present was her own efforts to stay away. She gave him a languid but definite nod, prompting him to work himself under her and bring her to her feet. "Then we're going to have to start walking. The nearest hospital and everything I would need are a full klick away." He had the door open when she pulled herself of of him and feel against the wall. "What are you doing? You could die if we don't hurry!"

"Get me effects. I put them in a bag next to the bed." She planted on the floor as she fought to stay awake.

"This is hardly the time…"

"Do it _nishum_!" He flinched at the insult and she felt bad for having said, but the effect took and with a nod he left for the bedroom. She knew he was right to worry. Here vision was tunneling and it took all of her resolve to fight back the gray haze threatening to overtake her mind. He returned quickly, a duffle bag over his shoulders and nestled in the small of his back.

"I got it." He worked her arm across his shoulders and slowly pulled her to her feet, kicking the door through the frame against its hinges. He let out a loud whistle that shocked her back from the brink of unconsciousness, and the dog ran into the room, giving a bark. "C'mon girl. You wanna go for a ride?" The dog cocked its head, ears perked and tail wagging at the prospect of a car ride. "C'mon, let's go, get outside." The dog bolted past them, hurrying down the stairs before them as he followed slowly. He had to drag her.

"Why did you bring the dog?" She spoke through pants and gasps, and her words were mangled as she couldn't keep her jaws closed. He shrugged, carefully navigating the stairs.

"You seem to like it, and it would be a shame if some Brute's came in here and ate the poor girl." He stumbled down the stairs, but made the ground floor rather quickly. The air smelled like smoke from a burning tower nearby, and the Ozone scent from _Solemn Penance's_ slip still lingered. "I'm hoping there's still a working Warthog at my last AO. Could make this trip a lot shorter."

"And if there isn't?"

"Well it's on the way so no time lost." He whistled again, bringing the dog along side them as they moved through the alley they had met in. "How are you holding together?" She shook her head, literally shaking off another wave of exhaustive unconsciousness. "Not good then. I hope that 'Hog is still there."

 **XXXXXXX**

"Warchief, not to undermine your authority but I don't think an Anti Air battery would be useful in the north section of the city." The Brute Major stood with his hands clasped behind his back, staring at Maximus's chest as he turned to face him. He swallowed, suddenly aware of the possible repercussion from such a beast of a Jiralhanae. Maximus glowered down at him, able to smell the fear rolling off of the Major. This was good. It was nice to know he still struck fear in the hearts of his inferiors.

"You will oversee the construction of the system to ensure no humans come to destroy it. You have no say in this matter. I believe there will be a counterattack from the direction of their city of Voi, so we will implement any means I deem fit, where I deem them fit to be. Am I clear?" He hadn't raised his voice, but the effect of his words and tone had caused the Brute to begin sweating. He nodded, and turned for the door. Maximus stalked back toward the window of the room, looking down at the basecamp and its functions. He watched as Unggoy slacked and loafed about sucking their narcotic infusion gasses, watched Kig Yar squabble over scraps of canned human food and shiny objects one had found. Some Brutes were spending their free hours fighting among themselves in a ring of their peers, over some petty trifle of a matter, or just to stay fit he didn't care. "Pathetic. All of you. You suckle on the teat of the Prophet and their lies. There is no Journey, no ascension. The facts face you with each artifact and ruin they uncover and yet you still blindly follow them, whether for material gain or some idiotic belief that a race as intelligent as the San'shyuum could never concoct a fallacy so elaborate." A knock drew his attention, and he turned to see several grunts enter the room, lead by one of the Skirmisher Kig Yar.

"Warchief." The Kig Yar bowed to him, and Maximus nodded. He liked this one. He was clever, not taken with the miser's pittance the Covenant offered him. Maximus would fold him into his plans, he decided. "My commander was slain by humans in the fighting. With your permission I would like to take charge of those that were under his command."

"You have it. Congratulations, Major Sav Fel." Sav bowed to him again. "I want your to muster your forces near the gate. I wish to take a trip into the city and observe the occupation progress like I intended to hours ago and I require your escort."

"You hardly require it, Warchief. I will gather my Grunts and Jackals. We shall meet you there."

Flattery, and an over indulgence of it. That was Sav's only detestable feature, besides being a Kig Yar. He had probably slain his commander himself. In fact Maximus was sure of it. He had contacted the Brute an hour ago himself. No matter. "Let no one in here." He closed the door behind himself as he left, receiving a salute from the two hammer wielding Brutes that flanked the door. "And set a projector to display these orders. Spread the word that while I am away this is what everyone is to do. If I find anyone had deviated these orders in the slightest I will behead the ones responsible as soon as I find them." The brutes gave another salute before he exited the building and made his way toward the gates.

Eirwen had contacted him ten minutes ago, and he was about to do a Type 1 Eyeball check of the sector she had chosen to ensure only his least liked commanders were there. Sav Fel met him as agreed, and together they set off for the residential north district of the city. They walked in silence, mostly for the Unggoy always yelped at the wind and the Kig Yar phalanx always had something to fight about. Halfway to their destination Sav separated Maximus and himself from the rest of the unit and approached his side while wringing his hands. "What do you want?" Maximus knew that look. Cunning desire for material gain, he had seen it in every one of the Kig Yar at some point. The pirate blood ran through the Skirmishers the heaviest.

"To know why so many competent commanders have been relocated to the industrial district, while all of the incompetent and commanders at odds with you are in the residential sector." Maximus laughed once, thoroughly impressed but not surprised that he had noticed.

"You are a quick one Sav. Alright then, I shall tell you. But only because it would behoove me to have you as an accomplice rather than an enemy." He glanced back, ensuring the unit was too far away or too occupied to hear them. "The Covenant is dying and I do not want to be on the wrong side of a ventral beam when the Sangheili retaliate to the Schism. My loyalties lie with them, not the Prophets, and they have already dug their own grave. I see the Humans and Sangheili siding together to destroy what's left of the Covenant soon, so I work to better my standing with the humans before this alliance of necessity occurs so I will stay well out of the way of fire."

"This is a very Kig Yar approach for a Jiralhanae."

"Is that an insult?"

"No, quite the opposite. I admire the preemptive measures." They continued in silence for a few more blocks of the city, and Sav had to fall back to intervene in a verbal debate becoming physical. He rejoined Maximus at the front soon however, and began to work his wormlike tongue. Maximus would like nothing more than to snap his beak for all the scheming the little bird creature did, but he would have his uses in the coming days. "Do you have room for another on your sloop? I can assure you I would be a valuable asset."

"Welcome aboard Sav. Now keep quiet, and use discretion. If I have something I must tell you regarding this, I will come to _you_. Should your tongue slip…"

"Perish the thought, Warchief."

 **XXXXXXX**

Eirwen stalked the warehouse she had repurposed as a forward observation base, watching the two hundred Marines and Army infantry she had collected since beginning her effort. They were tired and hungry and worn, but they would do for what she had devised. Everything was in motion, and as much as she would like to take his hat off, Maximus was on his way to ensure no Brutes he deemed too fit for the job were ignoring him. It wasn't that she didn't like him as a person, he was clever and disillusioned with the Covenant which made him one of the best strings to pull, however he was still a Brute and she knew that her home world was ravaged by his kind before the Covenant glassed it. Wounds like those didn't heal easily, especially when your existence was now based around the hate you carried over something like that. She watched soldiers work on Warthogs and a solitary Scorpion from her vantage among the catwalks overhead, noting the quick glances from several others not doing anything. They looked afraid like all the others, but she could see their fear wasn't from the covenant but rather her.

"Do something." She had turned on her external speakers and turned up the volume to bullhorn levels, causing several of them to jump or fall over as they were about to doze to sleep. "I don't care what it is, but make busy like. I don't want anyone dwelling or postulating." Several of them hurriedly started cleaning their rifles, another bunch went to see if they could help with the mechanics, and still more started looking for literally anything to keep themselves busy in her eyes. She watched one man stack crates of ordinance she had scavenged, then once finished proceed to stack them on his other side. Even while they worked, the jumpier, greener soldiers gave her quick, scared glances. It was probably the armor. She hadn't shown any of them her face yet, and even if they had seen a II, she doubted they had seen the configurations an ONI III could put together. She smirked to herself as she pictured their mental image of her; Some alien creature in human disguise ready to separate one from the herd and devour them whole, or a robotic suit powered by an AI with no Asimov Laws.

"Ma'am." She jerked her view to a Marine standing beside her, holding a salute. "You… Are a woman, right?"

"I'm a Lieutenant. So just 'Sir' will do. What do you want Lance?" He dropped his hand and held out a datapad displaying a team of phantoms constructing an AA Battery a few Klicks away.

"Drone footage, and a live feed at that." She had read his file when the Super rebooted. Lance Corporal Jenkins, cyber warfare, but every marine was a Rifleman. She had scoffed at his name when she read it. She had know a lot of Jenkins'. They must have made up fifty percent of the UNSC. "I figured you might want to see it, considering you're in charge, Sir."

"You buckin for a promotion or a lay, Lance? Either way nice try with the flattery." She set the drone to circle high overhead then handed him back the tablet. "Solid work, keep it up. I'm holding you back with anyone else you know here that's tech savvy, except a couple if we try and repurpose that battery later. Go round up your posse and I'll try and keep the computers in this Reserves base we're about to take operational for you." He saluted, taking her nod for permission to be dismissed. "And try to coax some more cooperation out of the Super while you're at it. He's been a pain in my shiny metal ass!" She looked at the laughter that followed the statement without turning her head, noticing she was getting a few less wary stares as a few minutes passed. The joke had worked. She had put a more human face to the gold visor. ' _Don't get too human E. You're still worth fifty of these guys in a fight. There's gonna be a lot less of them in a few days._ '

"Needless to say they will still prove useful beyond just bodies."

The voice was in her helmet, played over the speakers via a data chip in her skull. It belonged to the AI Gwynedd, a fourth generation prototype Smart AI developed by ONI. Parangosky had foisted her on Eirwen after a foray into the outer colonies that cost the UNSC Fireteam Shadow, starting with Gwynedd amplifying her abilities she could continue to pull off the stunts the full fireteam normally took. She had carried the AI through Reach and Operation FIRST STRIKE, and she had to admit that Maggie was right. She had never been so effective before in her career.

"I have an ONI report from just before _Solemn Penance_ slipped away and fried everything."

"Aren't there firewalls around deployment details?"

"You know how much I love to snoop, E."

"Save the specifics and give me the digest then."

"Very well." Gwynedd simulated clearing her throat, quite taken with human interaction protocols. "Veronica Dare commandeered an ODST squad for a smash and grab of something in the Superintendent's Database. A subroutine called Virgil. It was written by a Doctor Daniel Endesha to watch over his daughter, which makes it rather odd that this would be such a high priority target."

"How does that help me Gwyn?" the AI was silent for a half second, then gave her the impression of a shrug through her CNI implants. Eirwen chuckled and shook her head. "I mean it's very interesting, but don't see what good _I_ could do to this cause. Im hip deep in something already." She adored the AI. She was every way Eirwen's complement. They thought along the same lines of thought, be it at vastly different speeds, and shared the same overly sarcastic sense of humor. They were both of Welsh origin; Eirwen's grandparents having left Wrexham for Arcadia, Gwynedd created from a Welsh ONI agent's donated brain. Most importantly, however, they were both cautious in a way that threw it to the wind. Gwynedd loved perusing classified intelligence that was only for the highest ranking eyes, brazenly doing it in a manner that left indisputable proof that it was her yet never allowing her path to be tracked, and Eirwen preferred to move on her own through dangerous missions with minimal intel, shooting from the hip and sliding through by the skin on her teeth, relying on her 'Spartan Time' perception to carry her through the day.

"At the very least it's something to think about. ONI diverting forces from a more strategically important operation to nab a babysitter?"

"There's always something more to anything ONI does, and this is no different. Probably something it noticed watching the little girl."

"Or something far more important." A series of strange symbols scrolled over her HUD, accompanied by the small graphic face the Superintendent used to seem friendlier. "You know what those are."

"Yeah but I haven't seen them since Reach."

"There's also a mess of Covenant script mixed in with them. My guess…"

"You make guesses now?"

"I can't know everything E. Everything humans and the UNSC do, maybe. But this is Covenant and Forerunner ideograms in human code. My guess is there's a Covenant AI trying to acess more than it could without raising the alarm and ONI wants Dare to go collect it." There was a pause as Eirwen glanced over the code and feeds before blinking them away. "Also, your boyfriend is in the area. He brought his friends, but if you wanna go make out it shouldn't be hard to separate them."

"Oh this is shaping up to be a great day. Do you think he brought condoms or am I gonna have to raid a pharmacy for Plan B?" She pushed off from the rail, mantling the side of the catwalk and landing with a heavy thump on the polycrete floor. "Master Guns!" She stood up as she called out, being greeted by a man in his late sixties smoking a cigar and looking like he had had too much shit. "First, give me that." He pulled one last time on the cigar before handing it to her, and she lifted her helmet and set it in her teeth.

"Been a while since you've seen a SW, Ma'am?" She gave him a single nod as she pulled deep on the cigar, tapping her helmet on her thigh and mean mugging anyone that looked at her. She knew what they were looking at; Her porcelain white skin and eyes so ice blue they looked flat and smooth, coupled with her hair made for some confusing thought processes when it was standing in six and a half feet of Titanium and robotics. "Enjoy that then. One of my last. And I'm pretty sure we're not gonna find any more just lying around. What can I do you for?"

"Well about three grand would get you an hour Guns." He made an expression she considered to be call 'not bad', and she chuckled at her own joke. "I want you to organize the rabble, put together squads, set up a plan of retreat should this op go pear-shaped."

"No much to retreat to in this city now but I'll do my best. Field Commission?" She nodded once. "It's always in the way a louie talks. What's the full plan, if you don't mind me askin'." She let her head list slowly to each side as she smoked, wondering how much to divulge. "If it's all above my paygrade then I won't be upset. Wouldn't be the first time ONI took over one of my missions."

"Well your mission was failed when the Covies landed boots in November Mike. No offense."

"None taken. I know where we stand in the city."

"Alright. Well there's a reserves base with a direct line to the highway out of this city, as well as a hardened communication's array if it's still structurally sound. We're gonna take it and then use it as a base of operations to strike out at anything that would hinder a counter attack from getting into the city. AA batteries, enemy armor depots, weaken patrols and the host of the occupation force with hit and run tactics supplemented by our Scorpion and whatever mobile firepower we can hijack and turn against them."

"Alright. I'll make sure everything is ready. What's our time of execution?"

"Oh-Four-Hundred. Brutes and Grunts dont see too well in the twilight hours, and any Jackals will have to contend with the contrast of the shadows or the sun in their eyes." She looked to the Cigar, deciding there was enough to hand back without seeming rude. The Master Guns nodded his appreciation and returned the stogie to its seat in his teeth. "I'm taking a walk, going to see what's happening, do a little recon. I'll be back in an hour. That will give us five hours to set up for the smash from there."

"Yes Ma'am. I'll see that everything is ready by then."

"Dismissed Guns." The Sergeant gave her a salute and she returned it, quickly returning her helmet to her head.

"Alright, get back to work! I want the 'Hogs up and running with all the ammo you can fit in the beds and that tank ready to fire in two hours!" Eirwen watched as he set about organizing the troops for a minute before she turned and headed for the back door.

"I would advise doing actual recon." Gwynedd brought live drone feeds up in the corners of Eirwen's HUD, doing her best to aid the effort. "While you and I may be able to do a true smash job on the base and surrounding area, I doubt they would be able to keep up or even survive if we don't have accurate intel on enemy troop locations."

"Alright, point taken. I'll see what Maximus is up to, then I'll start sneaking around."

 **XXXXXXX**

Alex killed the engine and coasted the 'Hog as far as it would go as a Covenant patrol passed his line of sight. He had his glasses set to thermal display, and he watched as the assorted aliens moved past through a wall. They were just a single block from the hospital, so close he could see its sign in the darkness without NOD assistance. He looked right at Risha and the dog in the passenger seat, reaching over and squeezing her shoulder as she drifted in and out of consciousness, trying to help her stay awake. She twitched and her hand stroked jerkily over the dog's fur, lethargic in the motion and halting halfway down it's back. Worry ran through him as he saw her abdomen, swolen with the volume of blood inside. He wondered if he would be able to save her at all. She had lost a lot of blood, and without a transfusion the surgery would probably tip her over the edge and she would slip away from blood loss alone. Turning his view back to the fore he decided he could risk the engine and turned over the hydrogen powerplant, leaving the lights off as he let the fuel injectors slowly pull the vehicle forward.

He parked the 'Hog in front of the emergency bay, stepping and moving around to pull Risha from the vehicle. She roused as he worked himself under her shoulder and she said something in Sangheili mixed with english that didn't make sense. "It's gonna be ok. We're here." He held her up and his M6 at the ready as he pushed his way into the hospital, clearing the rooms with open doors as they traveled halls until he found one of the operating rooms. Inside was a robot with a myriad of surgical tools, it's mantis like arms resting loosely on their stand. "This is it Risha. You're gonna be fine." he tried the door but was stopped by firm resistance.

"Greetings traveler. Lost? Anxious? Please remain calm." The voice was overly cheery and patronizing, like one would talk to a child almost, and Alex knew it well. He lived in New Mombasa, and he interacted with the city's Superintendent daily at least. "Warning, do not let hitchhikers into your vehicle."

"Cut the shit Super and let me in. She's going to die if I don't get her on the table." He tried the door again but made no progress.

"Warning, unauthorised personnel will be reported to the authorities." Alex was quickly becoming frustrated with the AI, and it showed as he began kicking the door. "Please remain calm, help is on the way."

"God dammit Super I _am_ the help! Just let me in so I can save her!" He carefully set Risha against the wall, the dog rushing to her and gently licking her stomach. Alex put all his force and weight into the door, kicking and slamming his shoulder into where the double doors met. "Come on! Fucking let me in you useless piece of junk!"

"Please remain calm. The Doctor will be with you shortly." Alex continued to wail on the door, giving up after several more tries. "Warning, trespassers will be apprehended by the authorities." Alex huffed and moved toward the Superintendent's camera, watching it stare at him.

"Listen. The Covenant is split and she's a friend now. Please, Super, please let me in. She's bleeding internally. She probably won't live much longer if I don't stop the bleeding, you gotta let me in! I won't lose her again!" he stared at the camera, feeling his face flushed with exertion and his sinuses ache as tears began to creep into his eyes. "Please. She's all I have left. I couldn't save Odette but I can save her, I know it. So just let me in and take control of the machine. I can fix her on the fly if you just help me. She's not human so your Asimov Laws won't conflict if she dies, but we gotta try." There was silence for several moments before he heard the chunk of the locks disengaging. He didn't wait, quickly lifting her and moving her towards the table. He hurried to get her on the surface and strap her down, pouring iodine over the operating area before he moved to the sink and scrubbed his hands and arms. "Super, I need you to take a tissue and blood sample to see if anesthesia is safe or not. And give me a shot of epinephrine in case she starts to fade. She's Bi-Vascular, probably cobalt-iron hemoglobin makeup if that helps in any way. And hurry, we don't have much time." He slipped into a smock and a pair of gloves, returning to her side and looking down at her. Her eyes opened and her almost lost his composure, fighting back tears for reasons he didn't understand. ' _Why do I feel so strong about her? I haven't known her for even a day, and it's already like she's been in my life for years._ ' She raised her hand and took his, giving it a squeeze as she tried to speak and only managed a weak wheeze. "It's alright, I promise. I'll save you, do you hear me? I'll save you." She made a strange expression, closing her jaws and lifting her top set slightly to expose her teeth. Was that a smile, mimetic empathy? "Just go ahead and rest. When you wake up everything will be fine and perfect." She nodded, cringing weakly in pain before resting her head on the padding. Her grip lessened and her body relaxed, but she continued to breath, and he realized she must have passed out. The robot whirring caught his attention as it presented a datapad.

"I was right about the blood then." He wiped his eyes on the back of his sleeves, noting that he was actually crying over an alien. He leaned in, focusing past the blur in his vision to read the rest of the data. "And local anesthesia only. Great. Restrain her head in case she wakes up. I don't want to risk psyche trauma in case she looked down while I'm wrist deep in her organs." The robot set two of its arms to word, offering him a traw of syringes. He set to work numbing the area of her midriff and back, running through all of the needles and hoping it was enough. He gave the drug a few moments to work before he painted an invisible line down the center of her abdomen. "Alright Super, open her up. Be careful, I have no idea just how thick her skin is compared to humans, so we're exploring unknown territory." the AI did as instructed, smoothly passing the scalpel through her flesh. It took several cautious passes to fully enter the cavity, but eventually she was open. It was minimal invasiveness, just a four inch incision, but Alex wanted to cause as little damage as possible. "Suction. Clean all of the hemorrhage hour of the cavity, and ready a transfusion with it if it's salvageable." Again, the AI did as instructed, removing the violet blood and causing Alex to think of the smell of a freshly paved road. It was acrid and pungent, but his love of driving cause the smell to bring fond memories of his childhood back. A camera was inserted into the area, and Alex took the controls, maneuvering it towards the wound he had stitched. "Alright, intestines, part of a liver, spleen I think… Kidneys… Where are you?" He pulled back, moving the hyper flexible wormlike device around her individual organs. "Got it. Man she's not much different from us. A small nick in the common iliac artery on the right outside. Why didn't I think that spike would have hit it?" He set the camera to stay, angling suction toward the area to collect any fresh loss. "Separate this from the rest, it's all fresh. Do a scan of her arm to find the vein and put this right back into her after it's checked for contaminants." The Super gave a chirp through the machine, following his orders to the letter as he snaked a laser into the incision.

Suddenly his video feed failed as did his control of the medical robot, and in a few seconds of panic he thought about pulling out and doing this the way his seven times great grandfather had to. However he composed himself and remained completely still. "Super, the feed." He looked on to the screen, watching the empty black glow as he waited. Seconds felt like hours, and he quickly tested the laser against the cloth in a tray. It still worked, and he wondered if he should start believing in a god. "Small mercies and all that. Super are you there?" He looked to the robot, seeing it limp and unresponsive. Even the light in the camera that said it was occupied by the AI was out. Did the covenant find his data center and pull the plug? Panic returned, and he was unable to stifle it as the monitors attached to Risha began to scream that she was slipping into dangerous vital territory. With a growl of stress induced frustration he grabbed the scalpel from the tray and opened her further, turning the suction back on and setting it in her cavity as he stared at the cause of her malady. "Alright then, manual it is." He hadn't worked on a body without robotic support in almost five years and worried that he didn't have the skill any more, but it was such a small wound that the laser would close it in less than a second. He pressed the edges of the cut together and passed the laser over it, sealing it with a small fume of white smoke. The alarms became a single high pitched whine as she flat lined. "No, _no,_ _ **no**_!"


End file.
